On Top of the Maple Tree
by Shuckiesttribute
Summary: The holiday of five adolescents is rudely interrupted when they find themselves being transported into a world they didn't even know existed: The Maple World. Blissfully ignorant and somewhat reluctant, the five of them dive into the adventure, not knowing that the fate of their newfound world may be resting in their hands...
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

From her tower, Hilla could look out over the ruins of Azwan perfectly. Centuries after the war had taken place, its towers were still burning, her army still defending them. It didn't matter if they died in the process. She had the power to bring them back, and make them fight her battle once more. He had reprimanded her for it on multiple occasions, telling her that she had better ways to spend her time. Hilla kept the facade going, however, seeing it as an effective way to distract the explorers.

 _You fool_. The voice said. Even though Hilla was fond of its power, she always felt slightly intimidated by it. Only slightly, that's all she would admit.

 _You spend so much of your energy on an army that keeps dying._ The voice spoke again. It came from all directions and echoed through the room and through Hilla's head. As always, she wasn't sure where exactly it came from, it was just there. The sound was uncomfortable to listen to: it was a voice as sharp as glass but as heavy as an earthquake. She swore she could see the ground shake whenever He spoke. If she would actually be standing, touching the ground like a mundane, she could perhaps even feel it.

"It doesn't matter" She told the voice after she got over the initial intimidation of hearing the sound. "They're already dead anyway"

She laughed. It was a hollow sound that seemed to carry out into the battle that was being fought miles away.

 _I assume you haven't heard the news yet._ He interrupted her.

"There's news?" She asked as if she wasn't surprised something was happening.

His answer didn't come in words. Instead, an imagine appeared before her eyes. She saw the Empress, Cygnus, looking at a scroll that was hovering in the air in front of her.

The sight of her made Hilla's blood boil, but she was soon distracted by the text on the scroll. It took a few seconds before she recognised the text that now appeared in front of her, and the mere existence of it was something she hadn't deemed possible anymore.

"It's a new prophecy" She whispered under her breath.

 _From a land far away, across the sea  
New heroes will be found on top of the tree  
To protect the Maple World from his imminent darkness_

 _The power of five they must learn to harness_

 _The wisest among them is the youngest of age_

 _Henesys is where she will enter the stage_

 _Another starts in Perion, the barren land_

 _In Kerning City, the cunning one will stand_

 _From the trees of Ellinia, strength and trust_

 _All the way into the harbour of Nautilus_

 _But only when the five will fight in unison  
_ _Can Maple World be rid of his desolation_


	2. Chapter 1

The speaker in San's hut creaked as it came to life. This was supposed to be a new ship, right? It didn't sound one bit like it.

"Good afternoon passengers," a lady's voice sounded through the speaker. "As you may have noticed, we are currently experiencing some difficulties because of the weather. Please remain inside as we work on getting through it."

Great. Now they were stuck in bad weather. San hadn't even been wanting to go on this cruise in the first place, but her parents insisted, telling her they had already paid for her ticket. She was seventeen, for god's sake. She was starting college in a month. Wasn't she supposed to be adult enough to take care of herself now?

She was glad that she had such a strong stomach. With all the rocking of the ship, she guessed that many of her fellow passengers had become sick. In fact, her guess was confirmed as she heard the sound of someone vomiting in the hallway.

San waited a few minutes, then decided she wouldn't stay in her hut by herself the rest of the day. If anything, she should probably get something to eat.

She wanted to be out of her hut for a while, so she put on her coat, grabbed her bag and locked the door to her hut behind her. She made her way through the dark, narrow halls of the ship. A few flights of stairs and another narrow corridor later she entered the ship's restaurant. Contrary to the dark hallways, this room was flooded with light. The hallways made the ship seem cold and eerie, but the restaurant was so nicely decorated it looked the complete opposite: nice and cozy. Just as she expected, it was extremely crowded here. A surge of unrest rises up in her chest at the sight of all these people, but she breathes it out quickly. She was well aware of the discomfort among the passengers. No one liked turbulence, neither did she. But for most people, this seemed to be the end of the world already. In fact, now she was paying attention to it, she heard the whispers, she saw the people walking around, looking for a sign that this wasn't leading to their imminent deaths. San knew better. The Titanic was a tragic story, but it didn't mean that every ship was meant to sink. She calmly walked up to the buffet and thought about what she wanted to eat, but then someone bumped into her from the back. It was a small boy with a mischievous smile on his face. She looked at him, but before she could say anything, the boy continued his run towards the door, his brown curls bouncing as he did so.

"Tommy!" A voice called. From the direction San thought the boy must've come from, a plump figure appeared. Judging by the fact that she had the same brown colours as the boy and the same narrow mouth, San thought this must be his mother. The woman's eyes widened at the sight of the boy walking straight out the door, as if it wasn't storming outside. He left the door open in his wake and a strong wind blew right in.

"Darn it, Tommy" The woman cursed as she continued her pursuit. San only then noticed that she was limping. The woman was three feet away from the door when her bad leg gave in and she fell to the floor.

Without a second thought, San rushed over to the lady.

"Are you okay?" She asked, while trying to help the woman up. The woman, however, appeared as if she didn't want to be helped up. She remained on the ground as she looked at San, then looked at the door, then back at San.

"My son!" she said. "Please find him for me."

San nodded and ran out the door, which she forcefully closed behind her. Once outside, she was glad she'd put her coat on. The winds were cold and the rain was so dense it would have soaked her to the bone right away if it weren't for the coat. She pulled up her hood and went to the right, which is where she last saw the boy go. It was hard to walk out here. The ship was still rocking from side to side and the floor was slippery because of all the water, and the wind seemed determined to pull her off the boat. San didn't give in, however, she held the railing tight and kept walking. She did understand now why the ship's crew had wanted them to stay inside. It wasn't safe out here, and she didn't like it one bit. She would find the lady's son, and then she'd make her way back inside as soon as possible and bring the both of them into safety. San shivered. The rain water was slowly seeping through her coat, and it was ice cold. Again, San wondered what she was doing here. Why did it have to be her that was standing there when that boy came running by? Couldn't anyone else have been there to help? There were so many people inside. Why her? Why did she always want to help people? She cursed under her breath.

She called out the boys' name, but she couldn't see him anymore when she made her way to the prow. Could he have gone the other way?

Before she could decide on turning around, the ship sharply inclined to the left, throwing San off balance. She was so surprised that she lost her grip on the railing and tumbled right over it.

The last thing she remembered was that the seawater felt even colder than the rain.

Tosh didn't know how he ended up in the water. He wasn't even sure why he had gone outside in the first place. What kind of idiot was he? Seriously. He was playing truth or dare with Kell and Timsin, and Kell dared him to go outside in this shit weather. Timsin laughed like she always did as Tosh went through the door. Why did he do it? He could see the lights of the ship become smaller as it sailed away from him. He had tried to swim after it, but to no avail. He was stuck here, out on the Atlantic Ocean, all by himself. How long would it take him to swim back to the shore? He didn't have long, he knew that much. If it weren't for exhaustion taking him down, it would be the icy cold water. His feet already started to feel heavy.

No. It wasn't his feet, it was something _pulling_ at his feet. He looked down, but the dark water revealed nothing. He tried to pull up his feet, but the more he tried, the faster he was pushed down. When his head was pulled under, he started to panic. He didn't want to drown just yet! When he came back from the cruise, they had a gig planned with their band on a local festival, which they had been looking forward to for months. What would they do if their guitarist suddenly went missing? Tosh kicked and trashed as the mysterious force kept pulling him down. He didn't know how long he had been underwater; he was already losing track of time. His consciousness was slowly slipping away from him. Was this how he was going to die? What an anticlimax. He looked in the direction he thought was up, but he couldn't see the daylight anymore. Every direction looked the same. He realised he only knew which way was down as he was being pulled into the deep darkness.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2.**

 _(Music: Maple Island - "Maple Leaf")_

There wasn't much that Dakota was aware of when she woke up, but if there was one thing she knew, it was that this place sure wasn't the cruiseship she was supposed to be on. What happened? Did the ship wreck? Her heart hammered in her chest as she tried to recall what happened.

Then she remembered the storm. She remembered seeing the tall, lean boy with the blond hair, who was about her age. He was laughing with his two friends, a boy and a girl, before he headed outside. She waited a few minutes, then headed out another door by herself. She wanted to see what he was up to. As soon as she was outside, she realised that it was a very, very bad idea. The wind recklessly pulled at her hair, which she had styled so carefully this morning. She was supposed to be joining the grand diner at the ship tonight. She had laid out her dress on her bed that morning. She cursed because she had to restyle her hair again now. Little did she know then that the blond boy would pass right by, only to have her watch as the storm pulled him off the ship and he fell into the ice cold water. She let go of the railing she was so desperately clutching, and started frantically looking for a lifeboat, or a swimming vest, or anything that could help the boy. Little did she know that the wind would also take her and send her right into the water as well.

What she didn't remember, however, is how she ended up here. Did she die and was she sent to heaven? As she stared into the pitch black space around her, she knew this couldn't be heaven. This place was too dark to be a heaven of some sorts. Was she sent to hell?! It wasn't fair. She was aware that she hadn't always been nice to her little brother Leroy, or to the Walrus, but she always tried to be a generally good person.

She turned around and saw a rectangle of light in the distance. Dakota wasn't fond of the whole 'seeing a light at the end of the darkness' idea, but considering the fact that she didn't know where else to go to, she headed towards the light anyway. Contrary to the darkness she was in, the light was so bright that she couldn't see anything in or beyond it. She stopped right before the rectangle, what seemed to be some sort of doorway. The light fell at her feet, tempting her to come further. She peered back into the darkness once more, then decided she had enough of it and stepped into the light. Except there wasn't much walking to do as she stepped in, because the floor dropped underneath her right away, sending her tumbling down once more.

Caren didn't know for how long she had been falling. All she knew was that her landing was blunt and painful, and she was sure she had a couple of bruises here and there. As she checked her surroundings and, she was surprised to find that she fell onto a tree instead of on the ground. On top of a maple tree, to be exact. If it wasn't for her fear of heights, she might've enjoyed the view up here, but now she just wanted to get down as quickly as possible. It was nonsense, really. She had been high up on the ladders in the library so often she was used to that by now. This tree formed a whole different problem, however. She wiped strands of her ginger hair from her face and slowly started to make her way down.

A few seconds later and a few branches lower, she heard a yelp, then a thud, some creaking of the branches, and then a moan, right above her. Curious, Caren looked up and saw that a boy of about her age had just landed in the exact same spot as she had only minutes before. She felt as if she had seen him before somewhere, but she couldn't put her finger on it.  
"Are you okay?" Caren asked him.

The boy was startled and was now frantically looking for the source of the sound. "Who's there?" He demanded. Of course, he couldn't easily see her down there. He seemed more anxious than Caren was, so she decided to climb up two branches and show her face. "It's me. I just landed here too, same way as you did." She explained. The boy turned around to face her. His brown hair fell in waves over his eyes. He wiped it aside and looked at her with his blue eyes, that appeared larger because of his glasses.  
"Do you have any idea where we are?" He asked.  
"I know just as much as you about our whereabouts." Caren replied. "Let's find out, shall we?"  
The boy hesitated for a long moment. For a second, Caren was afraid he might be in shock, but then he nodded.  
"Alright." She said as she started descending the tree again. "By the way, I'm Caren." She added.  
"Elias." The boy nodded

The branches of the tree didn't go all the way down to the ground, so they had to jump down from the last branch, which was about three feet above the grass beneath. Caren hesitated. She never jumped from such a height before.  
Elias noticed her doubt. "It's not that high, right?" he asked, even though he didn't sound to sure of himself either.  
"Not for you, maybe," Caren said. "but did I mention I have a fear of heights?"  
"You did not" Elias uttered. "But you're not alone in that." He sat down on the branch next to her. Both of them looked down. For a moment, they sat there in silence.  
"But the thing is-" Caren eventually broke through the silence. "We can't stay up here forever."  
"I guess not." Elias muttered softly, but she could obviously hear the reluctance in his voice.  
"Alright." Caren spoke determined. "Let's count to three, and then we'll jump."  
"Alright." Elias repeated.  
"One" Caren started.  
"Two…"  
"Three."

Caren closed her eyes and pushed herself off the branch. The fall was brief and less painful this time. With a soft thud, she landed on the grass below. She looked to her right to check if Elias was okay, but he wasn't there. He was still up in the tree, on the same branch.  
"Come on." She reprimanded him. "We really can't stay here. You need to come down."  
"I can't do it." He said. "I don't even know where we are."  
Caren looked around. The tree stood on top of a hill. At the foot of the hill, the grass stretched out for miles.  
"I'll just wait here." He then added.

A sigh escaped her lungs. He seemed like a kind person, but Caren was running out of patience. As if hitting the water during her cruise vacation wasn't enough of a rude interruption, they were now lost in a place they didn't recognise. She knew it wouldn't help to sit around and wait for help: they had to do something. And if he wouldn't go with her, she would do it by herself.

"Fine." She said calmly. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to find out where we are and how I can get back to London from here. Good luck up there." And with that, she started pacing down the hill.


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3.**

Elias' fear grew as he watched Caren walk down the hill. He admired her perseverance, and getting back home would probably be a lot easier with her than on his own. How was he ever going to get back by himself?

"Wait!" he called out. She turned around and looked at him. With shaking arms, he let himself fall off the branch and landed on the grass on his side. His arm hurt when he got up, but it wasn't unbearable. It would probably be one big bruise tomorrow.

This could have been such a great holiday. Derek and he had made plans for a grand lanparty at his house while his parents would be away on this cruise. Elias hadn't known they had also planned for him to come along. He never even wanted to go, he hated boats and water! He knew this was going to be a disaster, and he had been right. Apparently he wasn't the only one who got lost at sea, but now they had no clue where they were.

He clumsily walked up to Caren as she waited for him at the foot of the hill.

"Look," Caren pointed at what appeared to be a group of trees in the distance. "There's a town over there"

"Caren, those are trees" Elias said dryly. Caren shot him a dirty look in response.

"What?" Elias asked. "What kind of creatures do you think would live over there? Goblins?"

Her facial expression changed from annoyed to questioning.

"You can't be serious…" He added. "We both know very well that goblins don't exist"

"No, you turd. Look!" Caren said, pointing at the trees once more. Elias looked closer this time. Behind the different kinds of trees, he saw shades of different colours. Bright orange, yellow, grey, red, white. Then the colours started taking shape: they appeared to be large mushroom-like structures, built in between the trees.

"Mushrooms? What the…"

Caren didn't answer his unfinished question, she had already started walking towards the settlement.

"Caren…" Elias started. She turned her head, but kept on walking. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Maybe we shouldn't disturb the goblins. What if they don't like humans?"

"Oh, so now you do believe goblins exist?" She laughed as she put more distance between herself and Elias. He sighed and started following her reluctantly. No good was going to come of this, he was sure of it. He just wanted to go home.

The two of them walked side by side for a while. They came across one mushroom-shaped house, that just stood there, in the middle of the grassy plains. There were a few trees here and there, but nothing else. Caren walked up to the house with Elias in her wake. She was about to knock on the door when Elias saw something move in the corner of his eye. He had to blink two - no - three times to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. About two feet away from them stood a snail. Now Elias wasn't afraid of snails - at least, not the snails he knew from home.

This snail, however, was huge - for a snail. It was about a foot high, with a white, slimy body and a deep green shell, and it continued crawling towards them. Caren eyed it cautiously, but Elias wouldn't wait for it to come and get them. He frantically searched the ground, and found a rock about the size of his palm. He chucked the rock towards the snail, which hit right below its left eye. He half expected the snail to become angry, but the blow seemed to have weakened it. Feeling a bit more brave now, he threw another rock. When the second rock hit the snail, something strange happened: the snail yelped, and then the creature seemed to dissolve into thin air. Only the shell was left behind.

"Now that's… odd" Elias said. "Where did it go?"

As Caren picked up the shell, items fell out of it. There were a few coins, and a small vial that seemed to contain some kind of red fluid. Was that blood? Elias didn't dare to touch it. Caren did, however. She picked up the coins and the vial and put them in the pocket of her hood.

"I don't think anyone's home" She said, nodding at the house. "So let's keep going"

This place was odd. That much San knew. After being attacked by multiple giant snails, she finally managed to reach the edge of the town. As she came out of the woods, she saw the sign that stood by the side of the road. 'Amherst', the sign said. That must be the name of this place. This town was just as odd as the rest of the area she had seen so far. Literally every building here was in some way shaped as a mushroom. San thought it was insane, yet it seemed to fit in a place like this. Cautiously, she started making her way to the crowded town square.

"Are you okay?" A voice asked. A middle-aged woman with wavy, blonde hair and large brown eyes had appeared in front of her. It was then that San realised she must look awfully lost and painfully out of place.

"As a new explorer, you should look up the town chief. His name is Lucas. He can tell you where to go."

"Explorer…" San tasted the word in her mouth, then thought better of it. "But I was in an accident," She told the woman. "I'm not supposed to be here. I just want to go home."

"Oh, that's unfortunate. Perhaps Chief Lucas can help you go home. You should talk to him."

San sighed. Going home wasn't going to be an easy task from here, that much she knew.

She turned to the woman. "Where can I find him?"

The woman pointed to a bearded figure, dressed in white robes, standing in the middle of the town square, surrounded by people. "That's him."

Not wanting to waste more time, San walked up to him in a second.

"Chief Lucas?" She asked hesitantly.

The man turned his head and looked her way. The people around him followed his gaze and San suddenly felt nervous with all these eyes on her.

"Oh, look, a new explorer." Chief Lucas spoke warmly. "How can I help you?"

"I'm not an explorer," I started. "I ended up here by-"

"She might be one of those Black Wings" an elder lady hissed as she eyed San suspiciously. Her words stirred up the crowd, that suddenly looked at her with fear and anger. San heard the whispers as they grew louder, but she couldn't make out what any of them said.

"Oh come on," Lucas hollered with a voice that rose above the crowd. "Would you really think a member of the Black Wings would show up here in the middle of the day, unarmed?"

Nobody answered. An awkward silence hung over the crowd.

"Alright." Lucas eventually said. "No reason to panic." He told the people around him. Then he addressed me. "Perhaps you and I should talk in private."  
San wasn't sure if she should fear for her life or not, but she followed Lucas anyway as he headed into the one of the many mushroom-shaped houses.


End file.
